Kate Briody – How I found my ancestors

At this meeting I introduced two of my ancestors to the group.

My great grandmother and my great great grandfather.

I wanted to show the different experiences I had when putting flesh on the bones of these two people.

Elizabeth was by far the easier person to explore and I showed through photographs her journey in life from The Isle of Man to Buckerell in Devon.

I stressed the importance of getting as much information from elderly relatives and received some tips from the group on finding out more information on problems still to be solved.

I then introduced Fitsall to the group. I explained that this character was much more difficult to follow due to a habit of changing names and because he had a profession that moved him from as far south as Devon until his later years in Manchester. However he proved to be a very interesting character who married three times and was widowed twice by the age of thirty. Thankfully Fitsall was accurate with his date of birth and this helped with detection.

I finished by telling the group that I had been recently approached by a man on Ancestry who had an ancestor with a very similar name and this gives me hope that more details will eventually emerge.